# hard sci fi books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 2, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971 "2011-04-02T20:34:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![twhjeremy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9d8465/32.png) [@twhjeremy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twhjeremy)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971/1 "2011-04-02T20:34:41Z")
I am looking for suggestions on a few specific, good sci-fi reads. I have seen someone post with a similar question/request before, but I want to be more specific in what I hope to find. I want to know what are good science fiction reads in which the story deals with any or all of ONLY the following topics: near future, “big brother watching,” dystopian society, totalitarianism, dictatorship, super power gov’t, humanoid robots, androids/gynoids, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, super computers, nanotechnology, advanced weaponry/warfare, advanced earthly travel/transportation, etc. basically i still want it to be on earth, no space travel or aliens. no teleportation or psychic/psionics/weird mind stuff. only science/technology based. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971/2 "2011-04-02T20:57:05Z")
This is tough. I tried asking friends currently into sci-fi about there tastes after another thread and found most people just like what they like. But based on your description, I’d go with Neil Stephenson’s\* Snow Crash \*and the _Diamond Age_. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971/3 "2011-04-02T22:42:49Z")
_Earth_ by David Brin _Make Room! Make Room!_ by Harry Harrison _Stand on Zanzibar_ by John Brunner Although I should note that I read the Harrison and Brunner novels back in the seventies. I remember them as being good, but I can’t guarantee how well they’ve held up (the “near futures” they were set in were 1999 and 2010). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971/4 "2011-04-02T22:48:54Z")
Do you literally mean only those specific topics, or only things that fit on Earth without any beyond-our-horizon technology? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971/5 "2011-04-02T22:53:45Z")
_Revolt In 2100_ - Robert Heinlein _The Roads Must Roll_ - Robert Heinlein _Solution Unsatisfactory_ - Robert Heinlein \* Coventry\* - Rob…oh, you get the idea. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971/6 "2011-04-02T23:00:51Z")
[_Einstein’s Bridge_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein%27s_Bridge_(book)) and _Twistor_, both hard sci-fi books by John Cramer, a physicist at the University of Washington. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971/7 "2011-04-02T23:40:54Z")
My husband thinks that books by [James Rollins](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Rollins) ought to do the trick. They’re action/adventure books set on modernish day Earth, and each book has a scientific theory or new development kind of taken to an extreme. He doesn’t think any of them go outside of the standards you listed. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971/8 "2011-04-03T00:22:06Z")
_Beggars in Spain_, by Nancy Kress would fit, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971/9 "2011-04-03T13:23:45Z")
_Steel Beach_ by John Varley is set on the Moon, but other than that meets several of your criteria and is a fun read. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971/10 "2011-04-03T21:11:41Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I remember them as being good, but I can’t guarantee how well they’ve held up (the “near futures” they were set in were 1999 and 2010). I read Stand on Zanzibar not too long ago, I enjoyed it just fine no matter how dated it had become by the time I read. ---
**Author:** ![slowlearner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@slowlearner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slowlearner)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971/11 "2011-04-04T02:51:52Z")
you don’t want sci fi, just read your daily paper for all that stuff… ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971/12 "2011-04-04T03:01:43Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > _Stand on Zanzibar_ by John Brunner Still well worth reading, and it’s not as dated as one might think. Though, thankfully, not dated correctly. I’ll add _The Sheep Look Up_, for dystopian purposes. Brunner, while in general a second-rate writer (I hasten to add, a very enjoyable to read second-rate writer), reached a spectacular peak in _Stand on Zanzibar_. Do read it. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971/13 "2011-04-04T13:54:54Z")
You might like _Starfish_, by Peter Watts, which is about a bio-engineered crew manning a geothermal power facility at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. (His novel \*Blindsight \*is better, but it’s a first contact novel so the aliens and space travel would knock it out of your list.) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971/14 "2011-04-04T14:02:57Z")
[My Name Is Legion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Name_is_Legion_(Zelazny_stories)) - Roger Zelazny. [High Justice](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Justice) - Jerry Pournelle ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971/15 "2011-04-04T16:08:59Z")
The following TV Tropes link, [Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness), should give the OP plenty of places to look. Another +1 for Snow Crash. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971/16 "2011-04-04T20:55:37Z")
I am a trifle amazed that no one has mentioned Ian M Banks. As an old git who was brought up with Heinlein ,Asimov, and many more,I think that you will be pleasantly surprised. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971/17 "2011-04-04T21:47:35Z")
Macroscope was the hardest book I ever read, when I was 14. It took me longer to read that book than the entire LOTR trilogy. ---
**Author:** ![Ura-Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/51bf81/32.png) [@Ura-Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ura-Maru)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971/18 "2011-04-04T21:56:19Z")
A lot of cyberpunk comes close, but most of it is only borderline hard science, and a lot of it has near earth spaceflight. Walter Jon William’s _ **Hardwired** _ has some people living on orbital habitats, but the story never gets up there. George Alec Effigner’s Marid Audron books do not, that I recall. (_ **When Gravity Fails** _ is the first one, I think) Both are are awesome. Course, both are from the 80’s, so you’re dealing with a bit of an ‘old future’ If you’re willing to accept fairly realistic in-system spaceflight, the list gets much longer. – This is the _ **Snow Crash** _ with the motorcycle with tires that let it drive up walls, right? Ahh, I love a good hard science story. ---
**Author:** ![Sandwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@Sandwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sandwood)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971/19 "2011-04-04T22:25:23Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > You might like _Starfish_, by Peter Watts, … I came here to add a +1 to this suggestion, and to point out that you can actually read all of Watts’ books for free online [on the author’s own website](http://rifters.com/real/shorts.htm). Might be something for those of you who’re interested but don’t want to buy the dead tree versions (yet). ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971/20 "2011-04-04T22:48:34Z")
_Altered Carbon_, by Richard Morgan, is set mostly on Earth - there’s a bit at the beginning on an off-world colony, but after that introduction, the action moves back home. It’s a cyberpunk crime drama, with the twist that the technology exists to download human consciousness into a computer, then re-upload it into a different body. The book does a great job of exploring the social ramifications of this. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-sci-fi-books/576971.md?page=2)